Saturday, July 16, 2011

What is Steven Gould reading?

Today's featured contributor at Writers Read: Steven Gould, author of 7th Sigma.

His entry begins:
At this point, (in the last quarter of writing a novel--currently writing the next Jumper novel Impulse.) I am usually rereading. Often I'm looking for a vibe, or tone, or feeling. Lately, it's been nearly everything written by Martha Wells. In particularly, I'm rereading her latest book The Cloud Roads.

She is a fantasy writer but there is something science fictional about her world building. Cloud Roads has this odd multi-race (and by race, I suppose I mean multi-species world ranging from variety of humanoid forms to bug-like hive creatures and primarily two races that shift from "groundling" to a flying form. All of these species are sentient and the cultural interactions are fascinating. (There are non-sentient species around, too.)

I've also recently...[read on]
Among the early praise for 7th Sigma:
“Sheer adventure: full of engaging, nerdily detailed depictions of the minutiae of Aikido, spycraft, artificial life theory, frontier economics, religious zealotry, Zen meditation, and beautiful descriptions of the southwestern landscape. It has the true pulp adventure serial spirit, the compulsively consumable zing that'll have you turning pages long past your bedtime."
--Cory Doctorow, New York Times bestselling author of Little Brother

7th Sigma does what any classic adventure tale does: it describes a very scary and dangerous world in believable detail, while simultaneously making the reader wish they could go adventuring there themselves.... I defy you not to devour the whole thing in a weekend."
--J.J.S. Boyce
Learn more about the book and author at Steven Gould's website.

Gould is the author of Jumper, Wildside, Helm, Blind Waves, Reflex, and Jumper: Griffin’s Story, as well as many short stories. He is the recipient of the Hal Clement Young Adult Award for Science Fiction and has been nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards.

Writers Read: Steven Gould.

--Marshal Zeringue